Home Entertaining: Amusements for Every One

by William Eastman Chenery

Up to the present moment, four cards have been chosen. For the fifth time, you are to have a card selected “by chance.” You decide, however, to save time, that you will try your own luck and see if you can pick out the eight of clubs. In doing this, you allow your finger to rest, with apparent carelessness, upon the real four of spades, the position of which you have known all the while. Having picked up the four of spades, you place it with the others in your hand.

You are now able to produce the five cards you have named beforehand, viz.: four of spades, seven of hearts, ace of diamonds, queen of hearts and eight of clubs. The effect upon spectators is indeed surprising.

Much depends upon the tact which you employ in executing this trick. You should first impress it in an indirect way upon the minds of those present, that your experiment is one of actual prevision. It is one of the rules of magic to lead the thoughts as well as eyes in a wrong direction. Be careful in picking up the cards. Do not let any one who is to touch a card get ahead of you by turning it over and thus exposing your trick. In looking at the card after you have taken it into your hand, do so adroitly—don’t stare at it. As the success of the trick depends upon knowing the location of one card, do not make a mistake on that one.

The Odd Card. Request one of the company to place both hands flat on the table, then insert between each two fingers of his right hand, two cards or one pair at a time; this will require four pairs of cards. Follow the same method with his left hand but place a single card instead of a pair between the third and little finger. This will require three pairs and an odd card or fifteen cards in all. Now take the two cards which are between the third and little finger of his right hand and lay them down on the table, separately, side by side, at the same time saying, “That is one pair.” Then take the next pair, separate the two cards and lay one on each of the cards already on the table and say, “There is another pair.” Follow exactly the same method with the remaining pairs, making the same remark with each until only the odd card remains. When you come to the one card, hold it in your own hand so that every one may see it. “Now,” explains the performer, “we have two heaps containing an even number of cards. I have one card in my hand. If I place this odd card on either of the two even packs, it will make that pack odd, will it not?” The audience appealed to in this manner will respond in the affirmative. “Now on which pack shall I place this odd card?” The card is placed on the packet selected. “Will some one in the audience kindly hold this odd packet?” continues the performer, handing the packet to a lady or gentleman. “I shall hold the even packet. My trick is this: I shall undertake to pass one card from my packet which contains an even number of cards to the odd packet, held tightly by your representative. Ready! Hold tightly, sir. One, two, three! Did you feel the card as it struck the pack? No? Well, sometimes the impact is imperceptible. But the card has arrived nevertheless. Will you count the cards in your packet? Wait a moment, sir. In the beginning you had the odd packet, I believe? And now, (Spectator counts the cards) you hold the even card number while I have the odd number! (Performer counts the cards in his packet.) Isn’t it wonderful?”

Naming the Cards. Divide a pack of cards in halves, and place these back to back, when one half will be visible to the audience and the other half to yourself. Glance quickly at the card facing you, and then place the cards behind your back. Place the card you saw over the card shown to the company, show the cards, and call the right card. This will give you an opportunity of seeing the next card. Produce as before, and do so until you have come to the last. It is best, in performing this trick, only to keep a few cards turned towards yourself, so as not to tire the company and possibly lead them to guess how you do the trick.

A Diamond Ace of Hearts. Show the ace of diamonds, the ace of spades, and the ace of clubs, and lay them face downward on the table. Pick up one ace, which you place in the middle of the pack: the second ace at the bottom, and the third ace at the top of the pack. Then ask a spectator to cut the pack wherever he or she may like, and no matter where the pack is cut, the three aces will be found together.

Commence by withdrawing the four aces from the pack: the ace of diamonds you secretly place on top of the pack, and arrange the other three aces fan-wise as follows: the ace of hearts must be inverted, and with the other two cards, hide the lower part of the heart and the small heart in the indicator. Show the three cards thus arranged quickly, and no one will imagine that the centre card is not the ace of diamonds.

Lay the three aces face down on the table, still arranged fan-wise, pick up the centre card, which is really the ace of hearts, and without letting any one see its face, slip it anywhere in the pack; place the second ace at the bottom of the pack and the third, after showing it, on top, of course covering the ace of diamonds which is already there. It does not signify in which place the pack is cut, the three aces will be found together when the two parts of the pack are reunited.

A Three-card Trick. This requires the aid of three persons. Take three cards, and, holding them in front of the first person, request him to choose one and think of it. Then lay the three cards, face down, in a row on the table, and take three more cards, which show to the second person, and tell him to remember one of them. Place these cards on top of the other three, and ask the third person to think of one of a third lot, which you show him; then lay the last three cards on top of the others. You now have three packs of three cards each. You lift one pack at a time, and request each of the three persons to inform you which pack contains the card he thought of. Of course, you know that the first person’s card must be at the bottom of one of the packs, the second person’s card in the middle, and the third person’s card on top.